Great Basin National Park -- Day 3 (Part 1)

We went to go hike up to a couple lakes, waiting for Lacy and Ben (and baby Madi) to join the family vacation.  We started bright and early and the kids did so great on this hike.  Isaac who had whined and dragged the whole hike the day before (didn't help it was late afternoon and time for some downtime), was leading the pack most of the hike, only asking to be carried a few times for brief distances.  Owen was still carried fairly often (partly due to the speed we wanted to maintain), but he happily hiked whole portions of the outing on his own. 

Sadly, sometime between the two lakes, happily-hiking led to a trip and fall that gave Owen quite the bloody, fat lip.  Poor kiddo.  

Right as we were coming up on the second lake (just a little while after Owen's fall), we actually ran into Lacy and Ben (and Ergo-sleeping Madi), who had headed up to hike up to us as soon as they got there.  The kids happily played a little in the lake (throwing rocks and playing on giant logs in the water).

Some shots of Owen's ever-growing lip . . .

It was the time we'd all been waiting for -- we had our appointment for the Lehman's Cave tour.  We hung out in the (air-conditioned) Visitors Center for a bit before heading into the (even cooler) cave.

The cave was gorgeous.  We also had a fantastic tour guide in the Park Ranger who took us through the cave.  He let Annie and Ellie hold the candle lanterns when he turned out the lights, and he answered all their questions and pointed out all the special extras to them in funny and cute ways.  He was so fantastic with the kids, learning their legs and really engaging with them. 

My favorite part of the whole tour:  we were leaving one room into this 'hall way' type area, where our tour group was on one side of some formations, but another tour group was over on the other side of some formations.  The Ranger DIVED down below a formation, motioning the kids, shushing them, then whispering, "Look!  It's cave trolls, in their natural habitat."  He then proceeded to dive behind and crawl along the low formations down the whole 'hall', with the kids running while ducked down behind him, giggling the whole time.  I was so impressed by him, and so appreciative that he made it such a fun, engaging, awesome experience for my kids -- one they won't forget!

We were running a little ahead on the tour, so he took us back to an extra room in the cave not typically on the tour we were on (there's a 60-minute and 990-minute tour -- but because younger children can't go on the 90-minute tour, we were just on the 60-minute one.)

The kids following the Ranger closely, hanging on his every word . . .

Excited kids just out of the cave . . .

We spent some time hiking up above the Visitors Center, then coming back and getting Otter Pops for the kids and playing in the trees on the front lawn.  The kids (and the big kids) had so much fun climbing in the trees -- I kept waiting for us to get in trouble, but at least two Park Rangers walked past when we had multiple people up in the tree, and nobody complained :-)